Did you know?

Robin Williams made a Popeye movie back in the 80's. It was his first film. We were looking up some stuff about Popeye (Rae loves to watch episodes on the Boomerang channel) and came across this video:

Go check it out.

Do it. Now.

He makes my life cheerful :)

Blaise loves to be different characters throughout the day. His favorites are Barney and Goofy. For Barney he'll walk around saying "hi everybody" and giving hugs. Or he'll sing the "I love you" song. He came up with that all on his own. When he watches Mickey Mouse Clubhouse he always wants to put a hat on (like Goofy) and do the Hot Dog dance. So Roy got Blaise to start saying this phrase:



He's a fun boy!

Happy Belated Birthday Evan

I remembered yesterday, I just never blogged. And I don't think anyone in the Bobby Jeppson family reads my blog everyday anyway :) Sounds like you had a great birthday Evan! I can't believe you are five - that means Rae will be five soon - yikes!

I don't feel like blogging much lately. I think I'm waiting until I can post some kind of news about where we'll be next year :) But it'll probably be the middle of March before I can do that. Maybe even the beginning of April. Sigh. It's not really stressful at all, just annoying to wait and wait. And I feel bad that I'm constantly telling people what I think is going on and then I have to change my story a week later. So I'll withhold details for now, for your sake!

The weather was really nice here at the beginning of last week and then got cold at the end of the week. I'm not sure how much longer I can take the cold weather. There better be a couple of warms days soon or I'm going to go crazy. Winter is so depressing. Especially when you live in a small town like Kirksville. But next week is Roy's spring break, so I know I'll cheer up soon! :)

Anyway, posting might be sporadic for the next few weeks.

Happy Birthday Callie -- and, "my needs"

Today is my niece's 2nd birthday - Happy Birthday Callie! I hope I get to see you soon!

And here is for your mommy:

If you are bored and have about 5 min., post yours! It is loads of fun to see what the other "yous" are doing out there!

Go to google and write your name and the word ‘needs’, in quotes — as in “Jennifer needs”. Notice the first 10 sensical sentences that come up.

1. Ashley needs you like water in her lungs.
2 Ashley needs an escape (that's for sure!)
3. Ashley needs to get something off her chest (this was in reference to boobs!)
4. Ashley needs prayer (yup!)
5. Ashley needs a nap (heck yeah)
6. Ashley needs to learn the rules
7. Ashley needs a home (well, maybe, we don't know yet)
8. Ashley needs flowers
9. Ashley needs to speak out over Newcastle (okay, I'll get right on that)
10. Ashley needs your votes.

Happy Birthday Katie!

I don't have any pictures of you to post. But I hope you have a great birthday and know that you are one awesome lady - wrinkles and all! ;)

The future

I've been watching a lot of Baby Story and Bringing Home Baby lately on TLC - trying to prep myself for May. I especially like to learn from the mother's mistakes. My belly seems to grow daily and it's becoming more of a reality that in a few short (ha) months we'll be a family of five. It is a blessing that you forget some of those horrible moments of childbirth and those first few weeks (and months). I'm actually looking forward to childbirth a lot more than I am looking forward to the first week home! I am so glad that Roy will be done with school and will be around 24/7 to help out. Oh the joys of being married to a teacher!

I've been thinking of a few things I'll miss once we have a newborn in the house:

-Taking a shower whenever I want. The kids are old enough that I don't have to try to catch a shower before Roy leaves for the day. I'll still be able to squeeze one in once in a while when the baby is napping, but it won't be as relaxed as it is now.

-Only 4, maybe 5 diaper changes a day, with only one or two being poopy. Along with that - a boy who doesn't pee when I take off his diaper! Shoot, I forgot how often newborns poop and pee in the middle of a diaper change!

-Getting 7-9 hours of sleep every night. It's not completely uninterrupted, but not nearly as interrupted as it will be with a newborn. I love my sleep.

-Normal sized, non-leaking boobs. (sorry guys)

Of course the list of joys a newborn brings to the house is a lot longer, or else I wouldn't be doing this again! I remember enough good things to make me want more, and just enough bad things to make them spaced out 2 1/2 years ;) Anything else I should be remembering?

Farewell Violette

No, she didn't die - we just got rid of her. I've been wanting to get rid of her for about a month now, but the last few days I have been feeling so anxious and annoyed and just had to get rid of her! The kids have very little interest in her and Roy is the only one that can get her out of her cage and hold her and he's not home enough. She also kept kicking over her food bowl and her igloo house and then she would squeak until we fixed it. She squeaked every time we opened the fridge or rustled a grocery bag. We kept her in the playroom and it always smelled like guinea pig. (Not super strong, but strong enough to bug a pregnant woman and make me not want to be in there playing with the kids) And she kept kicking out her litter and hay and sometimes her poop would come along with it. Can you tell I just couldn't stand her? I've discovered I'm definitely not a pet person and we will take a lot more time to decide before we get any other pets. We definitely made a bad decision! We gave her to the local pet store yesterday and I felt immediate relief and delight! The kids could care less that she is gone. Rae argued for a few minutes but I told her there'd be more room in the playroom for a toy kitchen and she was okay with it. No tears, no regrets. :) And now we have an extra 30 bucks a month that we were spending on stupid litter,hay and food! Ahhhh, I am so relieved!

Spring break

For spring break (March 9th-13th) we wanted to go to St.Louis for a couple of days, go to the temple and do some other fun stuff. Well, the St. Louis temple will be closed during that time. So I started looking at other temples in the area. Omaha is about 5 hours away and there are some fun things to do there (zoo, museum) but nope, the Winters Quarters temple will be closed during that time too. Okay, maybe we'll venture into Chicago - it's about 5-6 hours away. Oh, the Chicago temple is closed, scheduled to open on March 3rd, but subject to change. If it actually opened again on March 3rd, that'd be fine, but I don't want to wait till the last minute to make our plans.

The Nauvoo temple will be open but there's not a whole lot to do in Nauvoo or the surrounding areas. I guess we'll probably just take a day trip to Nauvoo and then a mini-vacation to St. Louis. Or maybe we'll drive the 930 miles to Charlotte and stop at the Nashville temple. Yeah, 30 hours round trip in one week - sounds like a relaxing vacation :) If only Charlotte was a little closer!

I've been looking forward to this spring break for so long and now all of my plans are being shot down! I guess that's what happens when we try to plan our vacation around going to the temple. Maybe we shouldn't be so righteous ;)

Tired, tired day

I guess I stayed up too late last night. It stinks when 9:30 is too late. I feel like I slept really well and I only got out of bed twice last night and Rae didn't wake up till 6 - so I shouldn't be so tired! But it's a cloudy, dreary, dark day. I should do some housework because that would get my blood going, but I don't wanna! What I do want is to go to Walmart and get more Valentine clearance candy and a bottle of diet dr.pepper. That would solve everything, right? :) Yesterday we hit up walmart for valentine clearance and I limited myself to one kind of candy. I chose cheesecake hershey kisses. Meh...not all that great. Now I want another chance to make a better choice! I want something chewy and sour. But I also want chocolate. But I'm also gaining too much weight so I probably shouldn't have either one!

Anyway, I guess I'm going to go do some dishes instead of dragging my kids out in the cold for some candy. Oh the sacrifices I make! To make this post a little more random but more interesting, I'll throw in a few pictures :)

Rae being silly and making a bed for herself on the shelf.


We played with cornstarch and water yesterday. Rae loved it but
Blaise didn't want anything to do with it.

Since we were already making a big mess with the cornstarch, we decided to have some s'mores too! Blaise took a ridiculously long time eating his and made a ridiculously huge mess.

Best manicotti ever!

Roy and I love manicotti - but it can be a big ol' pain to make. I was looking around at recipes and saw several that said you can just stuff the manicotti without boiling them first. I've recently discovered "oven-ready" lasagna, and I'll never go back to boiling! It's the same idea with the manicotti. You just have to add about a cup of water to your sauce and cover your pan with foil while you bake it. I put about a cup of sauce under the noodles and the rest of the sauce on top. I cooked it for about 45 minutes and then took off the foil and sprinkled it with cheese and cooked it for another ten minutes. The noodles were cooked perfectly and it was so delicious! The noodles are SO much easier to stuff when they are hard! (I used a ziplock bag like a pastry bag to pipe the filling into the noodles) I made them before church and it only took me about ten minutes to do the prep work and then I covered it with foil and put it in the fridge. When we got home I took it out and let it warm up on the counter while the oven heated up. It's perfect for me because I hate to be in the kitchen right before dinner because the kids are always going crazy and I have to pick Roy up from work everyday at 5. So I can make it during naptime and just pop it in the oven before I go to pick up Roy. I am so excited about my new meal idea I just had to share it with everyone! Try it out and let me know what you think! I can't wait to have the leftovers for lunch!

Happy Birthday Lindsey!

In honor of your birthday we got pink and red heart-shaped doughnuts with sprinkles - it had nothing to do with Valentine's Day! Hope you have a great day! I sent you a card but it probably won't get there for a couple more days.

Sugar cookies - bleh

Thanks for the recipes Chantel and Sara! I ended up using Chantel's recipe because I didn't have enough sour cream for Sara's. I do want to try Sara's recipe though - they look really yummy. But I'm not sure that sugar cookies are worth their effort. I mean, come on, they don't even have chocolate in them!! The ones I made turned out good. They are thick and soft and sweet. But to make them delicious I still need to frost them. And to make them interesting I have to decorate them. Any cookie that requires that much effort should at least have chocolate! I guess I'm just much of a domestic person. And I hate having the kids help - it always makes me stressed and annoyed. I'm going to have 5 preschoolers decorating them tomorrow - should be interesting! I'm gonna need some real good, chocolate cookies after we are done!

Pay it Forward

Okay, I'm sure most of you have seen this somewhere. It's almost as common as the 25 random things tag :) I don't know what I'm going to make but it'll be a fun challenge.

Pay it Forward
The Rules
1. Be one of the first Three (3) bloggers to leave a comment on this post, which then entitles you to a handmade item from me.
2. Winners, you must post this challenge on your blog, meaning that you will Pay It Forward, creating a handmade gift for the first 3 bloggers who leave a comment on YOUR post about this giveaway!
3. The gift that you send to your three Friends can be from any price range and you have 365 days to make/ship your item. This means you should be willing to maintain your blog at least until you receive your gift and have shipped your gifts. And, remember: It’s the Spirit and the Thought That Count!
4. When you receive your gift, please feel free to blog about it, sharing appropriate Linky Love!

I'll be getting something from my sister Katie (I'll probably receive it in 364 days, knowing her ;) j/k Katie) I'm interested to see how this all turns out! :)

Sugar cookies

Every time I try to make cut out sugar cookies I end up very disappointed. Either the dough is too sticky or something else goes wrong. Does anyone have a sugar cookie recipe that they have used several times and really really like? And any tips to rolling out the dough and cutting shapes? I want to make cookies for the preschool kids to decorate on Thursday. Please share your recipes and advice!

Blaise's new trick

I don't even know where he got this idea and when he started it, but the other night we noticed it. He was dancing around and being loud and I told him he needed to stop because it was too loud. He responded by touching his chest and saying "I turned it down". Of course we had to get the camera and get him to do it again. Also, the other day when we were at Rae's speech class he got a couple of blocks and stacked them up and said it was a tv and said he was watching Barney. He sang the closing "I love you" song and then touched the blocks and said "I turned it off". This kid is such a crack up and is always coming up with funny stuff. His favorite cartoon right now is "Three Little Pigs" from our Disney Silly Symphony dvd and he goes around all day being the big bad wolf. It's funny because he doesn't really sit and watch tv, but he sure does get a lot from the small amount he watches!

Nice, warm day :)

Friday was a lovely day! It was really windy, but it was around 55-60 degrees all day! I was able to wash and vacuum the van and me and the kids hung out outside as much as we could. Walmart even had strawberries cheaper than usual, so we sat out on the grass and ate strawberries - it almost felt like summer! (except that the grass was brown) We flew a kite and ran around and just really enjoyed the day. Yesterday was nice too but a little bit more windy, so we didn't spend quite as much time outside. But it was nice to put our winter jackets away for a couple of days, turn off the heater, go barefoot and feel some sun on our arms!

Children's books

I need some suggestions for good books to read with Rae. I feel like we wander around the library and just grab random books off the shelf, never knowing whether they will be decent or not. Any authors/series that your kids have liked? Also, we want to start reading more sophisticated books to her - like Harry Potter, The Hobbit or something like that. Any suggestions on that? And what are some good books for when they are starting to read on their own? Good beginner reader books.

Thanks in advance.


Also, I really really need someone in my family to update their blog! I check them a million times a day - update already! ;)

Happy Birthday Elizabeth!

Wow, I can't believe she is 3 already! Your cousin Rae and Blaise say hi and Happy Birthday!

(BTW Christie, we got our Christmas package yesterday! Thank you! The kids cannot wait to go buy some bird seed and find a place to hang the bird feeder. And I've already started the book!)

My little Valentine

Rae is so excited for V-day and loves everything pink, so I got this dress for her from Target. She wanted to wear it on Sunday but we were sick, so I let her wear it to preschool yesterday.

She's like a walking Valentine!
Also, I love the way her jawbone looks when she smiles like this.
She has some interesting features - I wonder what she will look like as a teenager. Hopefully cute, but not gorgeous :)

What a weekend!

Saturday morning the kids and I got up early and went to Walmart for a doughnut run :) We also bought a sled and we had big plans to go sledding when Roy woke up. I woke Roy up around 8:30 and while I was in bed talking to him I moved the wrong way and hurt my neck. I could barely move it. But we had promised the kids we'd take them sledding and it was a warm day and the snow was melting fast! So I took some medicine and felt better and we got out the door as fast as we could so there would still be some snow to sled on! There were a few other people at the park sledding. It was nice and warm and sunny - perfect day to be outside. The kids had a blast sledding, even though they didn't go very fast and the hills weren't very steep or long. But it was perfect for small kids. Roy and I even had a couple of good runs. Then we went to the playground and played there for a while and tried to build a snowman. By the time we left most of the snow was gone! Then, later in the day after Blaise's nap we went outside to get the mail and there was hardly even a trace of snow. We rode bikes and played outside for a while - it was great!









Blaise was acting a little funny all day. Just being unusually grumpy and moody. I kept commenting that maybe he was getting sick or something. Well, that night he hardly ate any dinner and then threw up in the bath. Ugh. We put Rae to bed and got Blaise settled on the couch with some towels and a bowl. Roy went to return a video and while he was gone Blaise threw up again and then Rae threw up in her bed. So we got both kids settled on the couch with towels and bowls.


We let them watch some cartoons for a while and then put them back to bed. I called someone to sub primary for us and I went to bed too because my neck was killing me. Roy always stays up till 1 or 2 in the morning, so he took the night shift. He was so nice to let me sleep all night. The kids both woke up and threw up several times in the night but I slept through it all! I finally woke up around 2 to go to the bathroom and Roy went to bed. Blaise was asleep on the couch and Rae was in her bed. I sat with Blaise on the couch for a while until I was pretty sure he didn't have anything left to throw up. I put him in his bed and I went back to bed and we all slept peacefully till 6. In the morning both kids were so thirsty and hungry, but everything they ate and drank came right up. So we spent a weak, grumpy morning on the couch. My neck was bothering me all day. Both kids took a nap in the afternoon and I slept on the couch for a while. Roy took a nap later in the afternoon but then I started feeling really weak and sick. I never threw up or anything but I felt yucky all night. Rae threw up one more time in the late afternoon but there hasn't been any puke since then - yay! Both kids slept really well last night and are in good moods this morning. They haven't really had anything to eat this morning, just a little bit of juice. They are in the bath right now getting all the puke smell off of them. I'm anxious to get my house cleaned up and get things back to normal, but I want to make sure I don't hurt my neck again. I'm so glad this all happened on the weekend when Roy was here to help out. And I hope he doesn't get what the kids had! We haven't been sick like this in a long, long, long time! I hope it's a long time before we get it again!

Saturday night - you can see the clock in the background. It's 11:15 and there are some crazy cartoons on at that time of night.

Sunday afternoon. Rae had just fallen asleep and I was starting to feel yucky.